Learning to shoot at long range

Shooting between heart beats:

The average heat beat is what, 85 beats per second? That means you have .7 seconds to get the shot off?

Am I missing something. I don't believe you can control your heart beat, I don't think its reasonable to expect to get each and ever shot off in .7 seconds with any type of accuracy.

However I do believe, or I do KNOW you can work around it. Look at High Power shooters, or better yet, the most precision shooters out there, ISU or international shooting union, do.

The have a shooting jacket, under that shooting jacket is two or more sweatshirts that dampen the impact of your heart beat.

Breathing as I mentioned in another matter. You shoot at the longest dead spot, that normally is the bottom of the breath cycle or as you let your breath out before you take in the next breath DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH, breath naturally, you have plenty of time to get that shot off.

Simple enough to try, Get in a good position, aim your rifle at a given target and breath naturally while you watch your sight in relation to the target, see at what point the sight remains in one position the longest, you'll see that it is at the bottom of the breathing cycle.

Now all you have to do is adjust your position and natural point of aim until the sights are on during that bottom part of the cycle.

Close your eyes, breath a bit naturally, then open the eyes at the bottom of the cycle and see if you're still on target,

If not, adjust your position, not your breathing habits.

One of the most underrated aspects of marksmanship fundamentals is "relaxation" the more relaxed you are, the better you are going to be.
Worrying about breathing or heart beat (which is natural, we all do it) is a deterrent to being relaxed.

Again this is easy to see. Go to a rifle match, walk up and down the line and watch the shooters. Some flop around like a chicken with its head cut off, some are relaxed and don't seem to be moving at all. Look at the targets and see which ones have the best scores.

The best book you'll find on shooting is rather cheap at $6.95, its the Army Marksmanship Units (best shooters in the world) sold by the CMP. INTERNATIONAL RIFLE SHOOTING.

The CMP has several good books, but for pure marksmanship the International Rifle Shooting guide beats them all.
 
It's worse than that Kraig, 85 beats per minutes at 1/5th second per beat is 17 seconds per minute. That leaves 43 seconds "between" 85 beats. That's about 1/2 second "between" beats.
 
Average heartbeat is closer to 70 per minute. When I am calm and relaxed my heartbeat drops closer to 62 beats per minute. That gives me about a second between heartbeats which is plenty. Again, that is when I'm relaxed, so it works just fine for me at the range.
 
Olympic class shooters can release shots between heart beats because most shoot on a rhythm. That is that after months of repeating the same procedure of mounting,aiming,relaxing, squeezing over and over that they establish shooting pace that is exceedingly consistent. Timing is not a conscious factor. Their practice is so repetitive that everything happens without conscious effort. It's something that us mere mortals may experience occasionally but world class shooters do regularly. Testing at the Olympic training center suggests that some shooters can actually enter a zen like state during a string of shots. Testing has shown that shots are released at the same point in time which happens to be in between heart beats.
 
You've all raised a very good point and I agree with you, when your hunting and exerting your body your heart beat is probably even faster and introducing the excitement of the shot ( Adrenalin) its probably faster so the likely hood of shooting between a heart beat is looking like a myth really isn't it. As I said in my first post I'm open for other people's suggestions of the way they do it and this is a good example of being told something and the probability of it being untrue is quite high.....

Does anyone know at what point you need to take the coriolisis affect into consideration ?? I probably spelt that wrong :o

Jamie
 
The curiolis effect comes into play immediately. However, you begin to compensate for it at different distances with different velocities. Don't worry about it yet... As another poster said, once you get to where you are shooting game that range, you'll know.
 
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once you get to where you are shooting game that range, you'll know.
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If your shooting game where you need to take the coriolisis affect in to account you are either an amazing shot or just very cruel .

I think allaroundhunter is right and it really comes down to flight time rather then distance . The longer your bullet is in flight the more the earth can move under it .

If I may add a question to this post about the coriolisis affect . I've been putting some thought to this and here is my question . Does it matter where on earth you are and what direction you are shooting . (example) If your shooting at the equator and shoot straight down the equator line does the coriolisis affect have an effect ? Same FFP but shooting @ 90 degrees of the equator will this have the most effect on your POI . Don't even get me started on thinking about shooting at either one of the poles :confused: My point is when taking the coriolisis affect in to account do you also take in to account the angle in which you are shooting on the earths axis ?
 
If your shooting game where you need to take the coriolisis affect in to account you are either an amazing shot or just very cruel .

I think allaroundhunter is right and it really comes down to flight time rather then distance . The longer your bullet is in flight the more the earth can move under it .
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Wow...good catch. I was typing on my phone and I meant to type "at" where it input "game". I would like to say autocorrect, but I think it might have been the word prediction software that messed that one up. No, I do not recommend nor condone shooting game at those ranges....

Don't worry about it yet... As another poster said, once you get to where you are shooting at that range, you'll know.
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It's more relaxing for your body to take three deep breaths --- inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth --- before you take the shot at the bottom of your breath cycle; than it is to just breathe through your nose.

If your starting to have blurry eyesight --- during your shooting session --- you're not breathing enough, due to the lack of oxygen in your bloodstream for your eyes.

If the wind flags are pointing in different directions...it is a bad time to take the shot.

Most shooters, tend to overcompensate for the wind.
 
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:eek: I think my head just had a coriolisis affect :rolleyes: That is way over my head . I think I'm going to need a chart :( but thanks for the info
 
I'm not knocking kraigway, I have great admiration for snipers! I shot expert in the army, I shoulda/coulda/woulda went to snipe training ifn I was smarter! But yes you can control your heart rate! And if your heart rate is 85 bpm, when resting, then you better go rest in the doc.s office, he'll be right with you!
Note another thing; heart rate dont mean diddly when hunting, I hear something coming thru the brush, my heart starts to pound like a jack hammer!
When I'm at range, and trying to put 3 shots in a dime at 300 yards, I'm mellow! Call it zen, self hypnosis, meditation, call it what you want! My doc. calls it amazing that my heart rate is so low when I rest! But I pass the stress test with no problems!
I dont have to concentrate on my breathing and heart rate, it was what I was taught, it just comes naturaly now!
 
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